What Will
I Miss if I Die From Smoking?
Acrylic on fabric, 98x79 in.
Ft. King Middle School, Ocala

This year's exhibition features some of the art works created
by the fourth- through sixth-grade Florida students who
participated in the Artful Truth-Healthy Propaganda Arts
Project. More than 3,000 students in 49 programs throughout
Florida contributed to this innovative project. Using a
wide variety of media, students created original artworks
that convey persuasive messages about tobacco use. From
ceramics and paintings to videos and computer graphics,
students respond to the challenge of Artful Truth, which,
quite simply, can be expressed in three words: Look Think.
Create.

You can view the works in the exhibition by selecting one of the
participating schools or community organizations from the
List of Exhibitors or by scrolling through the exhibition
below.

Students
designed and painted a puppet theater in which short skits were
performed to offer healthy alternatives to smoking. A tropical
scene and a healthy lung represent Paradise; cigarettes emerging
from flames and a blackened, smoker's lung symbolize the "dark
side".

After
engaging in activities focusing on deconstructing advertisements,
students designed their own ads, which were then heat-transferred
to white Dacron sailcloth and stretched over a light box. Each
work shines through to convey the truth, enabling the students
and viewing public to indeed "see the light."

Students
created several interactive sculptures, including this metallic
cigarette pack of "Diablos" ("devils" in Spanish)
cigarettes. The students equipped the pack with a button-operated
device that proclaims, "I'm going to kill you!"

Students
altered fine-art images with tobacco advertisements to create
the "residents" of Tobacco Town, comprised of three
cigarette-pack buildings. The individual works of collage are
often surprising and reveal the students' sophisticated sense
of satire.

For
the "Jeopardy" computer game, students showed their
expertise in creative typography and the symbolic use of cartoon
characters in packaging design. Modeled after the format of the
popular television show, students answered questions about the
health effects of cigarettes, advertising, statistics, and brand
names, as well as "gross stuff" about smoking.

Smoking
a cigarette, Mike may think he looks "kewl" with his
nice clothes and "phat" attitude. But when students
look at the flip side of this figure to see Mike's heart, lungs,
and teeth, they will see the obvious ill affects caused by the
poisonous chemicals contained in cigarette smoke.

After
students were taken on field trips to observe and photograph people
who smoke, they devised this installation, which combines photographic
images, vultures, and other symbols of death and decay. Flying
around a partially buried cigarette pack in this installation
the white birds represent innocent children.

The
cross beside the kneeling figure represents death; each cigarette
attached on the cross represents a person who died from smoking.
The figure with the baseball bat is about to swing at the cigarette
pack, expressing his feelings towards smoking.

Inventing
a variety of message vehicles, students produced a promotional
campaign to express a strong anti-tobacco stance. They created
"matchless" matchbooks, and playfully fashioned pop-up
anti-tobacco slogans that spring up from matchbooks and matchboxes.

For
several months students interviewed the elderly residents of the
University Village Assisted Care Living Facility, to learn how
generations that came of age since the 1920s developed their attitudes
toward tobacco. Students tape-recorded their interviews with the
senior citizens, including questions about their first experience
with tobacco and whether their friends smoked. Some of their answers
are included in this piece, such as "I only smoked to show
off!" as well as portraits of the residents and students.

Students
crafted hand puppets to represent the characters of the classic
children's tale "The Three Little Pigs" in a version
that depicts the evil wolf pushing cigarettes on unsuspecting
innocents. One of the three little pigs proved to be especially
vulnerable when pressured by the wolf to smoke.

A
Girl Scout troop comprised of Tampa-area, at-risk youth created
this showcase (reminiscent of a pack of Marlboro cigarettes) in
which each girl crafted a cigarette pack emblazoned with an anti-tobacco
message.

Students
designed a theatrical set depicting the gates of heaven, where
the Marlboro Man probably hung his hat for the very last time.
The backdrop was used in a musical play created by the class and
was performed for the entire school.

This
three-sided kiosk acts as a memorial to students' loved ones lost
to tobacco-related illness, and at the same time points the way
to a bright future for the students. These fifth-graders researched
facts about tobacco and prepared text to accompany each photo.
In one example, Lisa writes: "This is a picture of my grandmother...She
died from cancer. She got cancer by smoking. I wish I could have
seen her when she was alive, but she died before I was born."

During
the course of a special two-day workshop, students deconstructed
a pack of cigarettes and experimented with letter forms. They
then invented their own brand name designed to send a anti-smoking
message, examples of which are displayed on this six-panel, two-sided
folding screen.

VIDEOS

The
files below require Quicktime for viewing. If you do not have
Quicktime, please click the link below to download it.

These videos are shown in full at the Tampa Museum of Art from
June 11 - August 13, 2000. You can view a short sample of the
videos by clicking on the title.

Students
produced an MTV-style video that empowers young people to resist
the pressure to smoke. They sing a song that describes cigarettes
as addictive, dangerous, and, for children, illegal: "No
smokin', I'm never gonna start. It's bad for your lungs; it's
bad for your heart. It could kill you, and that's not all. When
a kid smokes it's against the law."

Forbidden
cigarette smoking often takes place in the boys' room in school.
This video shows the messy aftermath of this behavior as well
as how popular music validates smoking with songs such as "Smoking
in the Boys Room."

After
students participated in activities designed to show how advertising
can manipulate their perceptions and emotions, they produced a
Public Service Announcement. This video offers a series of graveyard
scenes in continuing succession, to which the viewer is invited,
"compliments of big tobacco."

Students
demonstrate their knowledge of the hazards of tobacco products
and second-hand smoke in this series of short skits. These students
dramatize their understanding of persuasive messages by examining
tobacco from a variety of perspectives: an interview with a smoker,
and a scene in which students dramatize how to resist peer pressure
to smoke.

The
Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man, the well-known
characters from The Wizard of Oz, have fallen under the spell
of the Wicked Witch. In this retelling of the familiar tale, the
characters still lack courage, brains and heart-qualities they
need in order to quit smoking. Dorothy reminds her friends that
"it doesn't take a wizard" to know "you can stop
if you just try hard enough."

When
these students learned about the effects of tobacco and second-hand
smoke in Artful Truth, they decided to put their knowledge to
the test in this game-show video. Teams of contestants representing
"Smokers" and "Non-Smokers" square off in
a series of tobacco-related trivia questions. The "smokers"
prove to be the losers in every round.

When
the space alien Zerlock encounters a group of young people, he
offers them "a harmless gift that will change your life and
entertain you." Cigarette in hand, Joe Camel conjures visions
of good times, fun and relaxation. They almost believe him, until
they see for themselves the ugly consequences of his habit. "My
ads are everywhere," he says, "and you just may be sucked
in later when you least expect it!"